Category: Cultural Obscenities

How our culture has allowed itself to become twisted

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Oh for the love of god! The insanity continues!!!

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As a side note this was originally going to publish on Tuesday. Given the events of Monday in Boston and Wednesday in TX I held it up. I’ve thought about it and decided that this still needed to be said.

We as a country cannot and should not get into the habit of “Banning or interfering” as this Senator attempted to do. 

Banning an event or book one group dislikes, places us on the slippery slope to censorship. 

I personally disliked Jesse Jacksons rallies in FL against Zimmerman. However I am duty bound as a citizen under the constitution to protect Rev. Jackson right to free speech.

This is a philosophy that is deeply ingrained in me. As it should be in all American citizens, most especially our politicians.

I understand that the Senator was likely just seeking some publicity, but this method sets a bad precedent. 

All right people I’m going to say some things here that are likely to piss some of you off.

TOUGH!

A Connecticut Senator by the name of Murphy asked that the NRA 500 NASCAR race be Not Aired or cancelled because of the fact that it was sponsored by the NRA.

I don’t even follow or watch NASCAR and this pisses me off.

I see this as nothing more than a spotlight grabbing publicity seeking asshole Senator standing on the Newtown Tragedy in an effort to look, yes look like he’s doing something.

I’m sick of hearing about Newtown. I’m sick of hearing every fucking controversial issue being tied back to Newtown. 

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I’m so fucking over it I can’t see straight and I am equally sick of hearing talking heads and dumbass members of congress blabbing on and on about the pros and cons of various asinine gun control bills.

I’m sick of hearing moronic state representatives blabbing on about things that they have no idea about.

Then trying to make laws that are supposed to be about the safety of the public. When in reality the new laws will not do one fucking thing to make us safer.

If Senator Murphy had been successful in stopping the broadcast or even the race, I’d have been calling for his immediate removal from office for violating his oath of office.

You know… that little bit about upholding the constitution? I might even have been screaming for him to be hauled up on charges of improper use of power and influence peddling.

Why?

Because had he managed to stop the broadcast or the race itself, I believe that would have violated the First Amendment.

Folks… Events like this race are planned at least a year if not two years in advance.

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The NRA PAID their sponsorship money.

The fans paid their money for the tickets.

The advertisers paid for their commercials to run during the broadcast.

The cars and team uniforms were logoed, and purchased.

Thousands of people fed their families because they had jobs associated with the NRA 500.

That doesn’t necessarily mean those people agreed with the NRA on any point.

However, unlike our politicians, those thousands of people did their jobs and were paid for their labor.

No-body could have predicted that a CRAZY person would kill his mother, take guns from his home and kill a bunch of school children.

That this Senator, seemed to think that all that money, and all those jobs should… What?

Give everybody a refund? Take a 400 million or MORE (I’m guessing) dollar loss?

Simply because he disagrees with the sponsor, demonstrates to me personally that Senator Murphy is unfit to be in the Senate.

Clearly he has no clue about how economies work and is more than willing to disrupt the finances of thousands if not hundreds of thousand of people for nothing!

Based on that alone he should be removed from office, he’s unfit to lead in any way.

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Cudos to SendGrid for doing the right thing… Or When Stupid is a crime

Or I could have called this… When Twitter is a weapon.

On Sunday 3/17/2013 a lady attending PyCon in Santa Clara overheard a couple of developers engaging in some sophomoric joking where they were trading sexual innuendos about poorly named devices.

Instead of doing the simple thing like turning around and letting these guys know they were out of line she photographed & tweeted their picture out into the twitterverse.

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Her action caused the two developers to be removed from the convention, one of the guys lost his job and ultimately so did she. This Article is pretty brutal about how they report it.

There is so much that is wrong in this scenario.

This woman had options:

She could have done the human thing and asked the guys to cool it, explaining that they were being offensive.

She could have moved, thereby taking responsibility for her own feelings. (I’m not saying that she should have been required to move, but she could have removed herself from the annoyance.)

She chose to be passive aggressive, snap a photo of the guys (without their knowledge / consent or modeling release) then broadcast that photo to a presumably wide public audience captioned with something identifying them as pigs. Saying essentially HELP ME THEY’RE SEXUALLY HARASSING ME! 

We’ve all sat through sexual harassment training. As I’ve sat through those classes I’ve often thought that the Harassment brush was just a little too broad and biased against men. Women have far greater latitude in what they can say to men and we men have to take it.

I’ve been asked in the workplace if I was circumcised, and how big my dick was by crude Women. I’ve also listened to endless gay jokes and disparaging remarks, from men.

Hell, I’ve been present in rooms where the evil of the WHITE man was being discussed and the suggested solution was that all the white people should be punished. Yeah racism isn’t solely the domain of white people. Racists come in all colors shapes and sizes.

So WHAT?

Next! I simply exited the area when the conversation turned to stuff I didn’t want or need to hear.

I’ve watched woman after woman end good mens careers with the corporate Nuclear weapon of “Harassment” it’s not a new phenomena. I’ve also seen men laughed out of an HR department when they decided to report a woman that was harassing them.

I remember laughing my ass off several years ago when after considerable publicity a female sports reporter was allowed in the locker rooms of male professional teams.

She was then offended by naked men walking around in the locker room. I thought it was a joke, but quickly it escalated into something more. After gaining access to the male locker rooms, she decided that the men should be clothed when she was there. The insanity came to a halt when the teams simply stopped talking to her.

I remember thinking, “Lady that’s why we built locker rooms. Guys would be just as happy changing clothes and showering outside. We created the space so that women and children wouldn’t be offended.”

At the time a number of male sports reported speculated about gaining access to female locker rooms but that was considered creepy.

This situation is also about our collective thin skin, and our psychotic enforcement of  Politically Correct standards on steroids.

You can reasonably expect to be offended by something anytime you’re out in public.

For that matter you can expect to be offended by the crap that passes for entertainment on TV, not to mention the commercials. KIAs booming hip hop commercials come to mind. The Kardashians, uhh hello???

It’s the kid with his pants hanging down his butt.

Or the morbidly obese guy sweating like Niagara Falls in front of you at a fast food joint ordering 2 mega cheese burgers super size fries and a gallon cup of diet coke.

It’s the plumber proudly showing off a hairy plumbers crack.

The gang member flashing signs at an opposing gang in front of a crowd of kids, daring someone in the opposing gang to shoot him, thoughtless of the collateral damage.

It’s the past middle aged woman whose been around the block once too often, braless dressed like a teenage slut.

And it’s the teenager dressed like a slut being upset because people treat her badly.

It’s the Middle Eastern guy screaming and shaking his fist at a veiled woman in a mall, as she shrinks away.

It’s the profane, the obscene, the morally ambiguous.

It’s the self centered dumbasses more interested in texting while they’re driving or walking expecting you to move out of their way because they can’t be bothered to pay attention to someone as lowly as you.

It’s signs with messages you find offensive. Do I need to see salacious advertising for the latest “Falling Star” from Hollywood?

How about booming music with lyrics talking about killing whitie or slappin dat ho ’cause she don’t suck you right.

It’s the gas pump TVs screaming at you while you’re just trying to put gas in your car. while you’re thinking, “why am I paying 4.80 a gallon to be forced to hear this shit?”

In short it’s all the things that we each find offensive, yet put up with and ignore.

These things we take no action about because after all it’s about freedom of expression. Well, freedom… and the undercurrent of fear of getting involved. 

But two men, having a laugh at bawdy innuendo at a convention in public who happen to be in earshot of a woman… and the shit hits the fan.

I think that SendGrid did the right thing firing this woman, I also think they should apologize to the developers who were removed from the conference and they should pay the developers companies for the lost conference fees.

Moreover, I think this should serve as a call to arms.

The time for draconian Politically Correct enforcement is past. it’s time for some of us to grow thicker skins, and stop trying to see offense in every situation.

It’s also time to stop denigrating being Male.

Face it men are different. Aside from our cocks and balls. We think differently and look at the world differently. As a result our jokes and what we find funny will be reflective of those differences. 

It’s time to let men be men.

Ladies, believe it or not, if you simply ask us to play nice… We will.

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Can we now safely say its gone too far?

I caught this headline yesterday, the NRA picked it up this morning on Twitter.

7-year-old Maryland boy suspended for shaping pastry into gun – (via @WashTimes)

This boggles my mind. It’s almost as bad as the boy being suspended from making a gun with his index finger.

Or the Canadian boy last year whose parents home was raided because the boy drew a picture of a gun in school on a piece of paper. Uh… hello? It was a picture! (There’s more to the story and I’m oversimplifying the Canadian case a little. If you’re interested, you can find the original article in the archive section of this blog.)

20130303-094656.jpg Folks lets get a fucking clue!

Guns are in our culture, they are in every cop show, they’re romanticized, demonized, and endlessly discussed in the media.

As an aside, I happened to catch an episode of Hawaii Five-O a few weeks back.

There was a very interesting exchange between the two main characters, I don’t remember the whole thing exactly but it was something like “you’re a cop how can you not like guns?”, The other characters said “I use a gun as part of my job but that doesn’t mean I have to like guns.”

I remember that caught my attention because it was unusual for a cop show to address the gun issue and I wondered if the actor(s) or writers were taking a bit of a stand. I wondered if the actor who played the character not liking guns was making a personal statement for himself in the show with the help of the writers.

Either way, I liked the delivery. I thought it was reasonable, not preachy and pretty adult in it’s message. It also happened that it mirrors my own opinions about guns. They’re tools. Shooting at a target range is fun, a gun is a tool that facilitates shooting at the target range. I might like a particular gun, or a certain gun might have sentimental value to me. But that’s about as far as it goes. I am by no means and don’t anticipate becoming a collector / ammo hoarder with a walk in gun safe

There are pictures of guns almost daily in the newspapers in this country.

We shouldn’t be surprised that our kids would be curious.

The problem I see with the irrational behavior exhibited in these instances is that we add to the mystique of guns.

What lesson are we teaching a 7 year old by suspending him? Are we saying that guns are mysterious, forbidden, frightening, and therefore ultimately desirable?

Will this child learn the lesson that he can get out of school anytime he wants by presenting any remotely pseudo gun like object in class? Where will that lead?

Will this child and his peers ultimately decide that a gun is the most sought after object they can acquire? If so, doesn’t that logically increase the probability of children accidentally shooting each other?

20130303-094712.jpg It’s time for us to dial it down a few notches.

Water pistols will soon be making their annual appearance.

How do we as a society justify water guns being sold at Toys r Us and Walgreens, as toys and at the same time suspend kids for making croissant or finger guns?

I personally think making gang hand signs is far more damaging and deserving of sanction but that’s my opinion.

How about the schools, instead of freaking out, do something like actually teach the kids why they’re concerned?

Why not teach children what guns are used for, (hunting, law enforcement, military actions,) etc?

How about teaching kids the dangers of guns and that they’re loud and smelly. (Gunpowder smoke isn’t all that pleasant, when I was a kid I didn’t like the smell, now… Well it’s not a problem.)

I’d say get law enforcement involved, have them speak to the kids about guns and why they carry them.

Have local gun clubs or ranges put on demonstrations so the kids have a very clear idea about what a gun is, how much damage a gun can cause and why the children should be very careful if they find themselves around guns.

Even if none of the above was possible, I think it would be far more responsible for schools to teach kids something useful, like what to do if they happen to find an unattended gun or even just bullets.

Useful information like;

Don’t touch
Leave the area
Go find an adult and tell them where the gun/bullets are.

It’s not necessary to dwell on the negative. Criminals will provide ample examples of misuse via the daily news.

Instead of increasing the mystique, lets dispel it.

Lets teach the kids that a gun is a tool. Most children are less than interested in operating a shovel, rake, or lawnmower.

If we could put guns in the same context it would be far more effective at curbing children’s curiosity than completely disproportionate and frankly silly responses from adults and educators.

I swear! I’d no sooner pressed “Publish” on this entry when I saw this in Twitter.

A sixteen year old student has been suspended for disarming another student on a school bus.

But wait it gets better! Our suspended student was one of three suspended for disarming a fellow student that was pointing a loaded .22 caliber at another students head and threatening to kill him.

The gun toting student was arrested.

The referral slip for the kid that disarmed the would-be shooter, stated that he’d been suspended for being involved in an incident with a gun.

Ok… WTF?

Again what are we trying to teach our children? We say you should be responsible, get involved, prevent bullying, and when kids actually do behave bravely and with honor doing what we tell them is the right thing…

We punish them!

Folks this really is not the way to instill higher values in our children or in our society.

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Ok, I’ve got nothing!

Nothing to say.

Still looking for insurance that I can afford.

THuhhe search isn’t going well.

On the one hand I’d like to be covered, on the other hand I have a fundamental problem paying another mortgage payment to have medical coverage.

The primary problem I have is this, with a mortgage I have something that’s tangible. With health insurance I’m pissing money away to provide for coverage that I may or may not use.

At the rate I’m paying right now for COBRA, if I paid that same rate for 10 years it would come to $72,000 not including interest.

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When the  men in my family break at end of life we don’t typically last very long.

I’m actually fortunate in that as long as we stay active we live a long fairly trouble free life. Our sinuses are for shit but nothing is perfect.

When our time comes we tend to go out like Don Corleone in The Godfather. We’re playing with the grandkids or great grandkids in the garden then we drop dead.

If I’m going to pay the equivalent of another mortgage, I might as well take advantage of the lower mortgage rates and buy another piece of property. At least I could rent it out and have an income, with a potentially higher rate of return.

I was thinking about it and realized that were I to go to a bank to apply for a mortgage for another piece of property they’d tell me I can’t afford to make the payment. Yet our government says that not only must I afford the payment but that they will enforce it under the law.

It’s a lose, lose proposition. If I were still in my 20s I’d be applying for citizenship in other countries. Not because I hate America, I love this country, but because I wouldn’t be able to afford the cost of American citizenship as I got older.

Today if I could communicate with my younger self… I’d say go find a decent country with good people and a system that works. Move there, become a citizen and plan for a decent retirement.

I look at my parents and their retirement isn’t at all what they’d planned for because they trusted in a system that didn’t really protect them. Remember Enron? There were a lot of 401K investments that got wiped out due to them. Then just a few years later you have the housing implosion and the devaluation of their retirement savings has really cut into what they can do. I know they’re on Medicare and Social Security I know they’re paying for health care supplementary insurance I just don’t know how long they’re going to be able to afford it.

I’ve spoken to younger insurance agents who don’t have health insurance because they don’t have an extra 600 – 800 dollars a month in their budgets.

NewImageYet in 2014 we’re all supposed to be carrying insurance and we’ll be penalized for not having a policy in force.

I’m still OK,  yeah I’m using my savings to pay the bills but I can go for a while longer with careful spending. I keep wondering how the hell can people less fortunate than myself come close to affording health insurance?

It really messes with your head. You want to do the right thing, but you can’t afford to do the right thing.

Obviously if you didn’t bother to pay for your housing, and didn’t eat you could afford to pay for health insurance. Then you’d only have to worry about paying for health insurance for a few weeks.

This is seriously wrong. And yet the government is in a position to make us all face this choice.

I’ve said it before. Contrary to what President Obama would have us believe. The problem isn’t that American Citizens are irresponsible about medical coverage. The problem is that health insurance companies and to some extent the medical providers are raping the American People.

If our government was truly interested in taking action on health care they’d address the source of the problem not penalize the victims.

Humm, I guess I did have something to say after all.

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Yet again I ask WHERES MY OBAMA CARE?

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Oh yeah, I’m the wrong color for that…

I’m a little pissed off.

I’m at the end of COBRA coverage which I maintained because I was once again trying to do the right thing.

That belief cost me $10, 872 and forced me to keep using a pharmacy provider called Express Scripts which is without doubt one of the worst organizations I’ve ever had the misfortune to deal with.

I’m an average person,  I pay my bills, don’t expect to be taken care of, pay my own way, try to stay off the government radar, and try like hell to live my life my way without having someone else’s hand in my fucking pocket or up my ass.

I’m still laboring under the illusion that doing the right thing is important… at least to me.

Because of that philosophy, I’d applied for a personal healthcare policy to the same fucking insurance company that currently has kept me insured under a group policy for the past 6 years. Not only couldn’t they simply look at the information they already have about me…

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After due consideration… they declined to cover me on a personal policy.

Let me get this straight… You’ve been covering me, You’ve made almost 11K off me over the past 2 years, and now I’m too big a risk? Jesus, Mary, & Joseph!

It makes me believe even more strongly that all health insurance companies should be ruled illegal and their executives and most of their staff should be taken and whipped naked through the streets.

This places me in a situation that I’d anticipated anyway.

I can apparently qualify for HIPAA coverage which is obscenely expensive. I’ve been told it costs something like almost double what I’ve been paying under COBRA.

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Sorry, I can’t afford that kind of money, seeing as I’m unemployed and all. 

This is one of the reasons that I was not a supporter of Obamacare and the obscene price tag that will cost.

If you look at the price of the HIPAA program you can’t come to any conclusion other than a national healthcare program will be horrifically expensive.

I suspect this is what the politicians concluded as well, hence the provision to make  anyone not paying for health insurance a criminal…

The Tea Party and Republicans are wrong about the Death panels… It’s much simpler than that.

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All Obamacare has to do is price people on fixed income or who have no income out of the market. No boards or panels needed…

I was hoping for something better in healthcare reform. But Obamacare was shoved down our throats.

I thought a plan that forced the insurance companies to provide coverage for the people who had previously been covered by their employers, would be more efficient. A plan like that wouldn’t require implementation of yet another bureaucracy.

If you had a group policy with your employer and you got laid off you were still automatically covered… And that coverage would continue no matter what. The payments could have been based on a sliding scale.

If you couldn’t pay because your unemployment ran out or you took a part time job at substantially lower pay… It wouldn’t have mattered you were still covered.

There are people who’ll say yes but what about the poor? What about the young just coming into the workforce?

Simple… the poor pay like they always have (or not… depending on the culture they come from). The young, are automatically and without question covered on their parents policies until they get a job that provides insurance.

Using a plan like this, everyone is covered, the insurance companies aren’t able to weasel out of providing coverage that all of us have paid for many times over.

As an added benefit,  the Medical insurance / establishment has a real incentive to keep costs low and increase the efficiency of the system.

Why does it cost $25 for a fucking aspirin in a hospital? Because of all the bullshit it takes to get you that aspirin. Even though you could go to the hospital gift shop and buy a whole bottle yourself for $8.

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Then when you think about the people who retire because they were in their 50s or 60s and got laid off.

Through no fault of their own, they get fucked again and again by a system that they’d been told all their lives was supposed to reward them for their years of contribution.

Instead they’re on unemployment, paying obscene amounts for COBRA, hitting their 401Ks and having to pay endless penalties. But then, to add insult to injury their COBRA runs out and they’re uninsured when they need coverage the most.

Poof, in just a matter of months their dreams of retirement are destroyed.

This kind of stuff is exactly why there are so very many angry disenfranchised people in this country. 

Honestly, it’s a wonder that there aren’t more people losing it. 

This is how people end up eating cat food. Or homeless pushing shopping carts down the sidewalks. 

It’s not just the medical establishment… it’s the entire system that’s broken in an unbelievable number of ways. Throwing trillions of dollars at it isn’t going to make it any better.

The solution is to fix the problem.